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Natalia: Bartek, could you describe the main influences that led you to create this project?

Bartek Hlawka: It was a visual and sound inspiration from my favorite movies and classic games like Another World, Flashback, what pushed me to making this short film.

Tempus is more like the sensual experience of a person lost or even trapped, running away the unknown in a foreign place where the time seems to run faster.

NB: How did you combine the real time and timelapse scenes together? Was the same rule used in the different scenes?

BH: Main idea was to make two types of shots. One with timelapses blended with live action and second with compositing a few live action shots in one frame. We always worked in the same workflow: a few rehearsals to set up the shot, record a clean plate in video mode with Canon 5D MK3 in ML RAW mode, live action shot and a timelapse shot in photo RAW at the end. Due the photo and video 5D MK3 raw capabilities compositing was quite easy but time consuming, because involved a lot of rotoscoping.

NB: Which scene was the most time-consuming from the production and postproduction point of view?

BH: Most challenging thing was location scouting and weather problems. We planned a few other maybe more attractive locations but it was impossible to shoot there with our budget.In postproduction most of the scenes involved the same amount of time, final shot was a little bit complicated because of a few layers of matte painting.

NB: Can you share your experience using DitoGear™ Evolution for this kind of work?

BH: Making a shot with camera motion in more than one axis which must be exact the same in video and timelapse mode is very hard. We could try to do this with standard controllers but with only 3 shooting days, 6 locations, more than 1000 kilometers driven and a small crew it would by almost impossible.

DitoGear™ Evolution allowed us to work fast and precise, moving efficiently from location to location.

NB: Could you tell us how the teleportation controller was created?

BH: As a Star Wars fan and “making of videos” addict I always wanted to try a few techniques from 70s and 80s movie making. A lot of classic spaceships models were made in the same way: first you make a general shape of a model in a appropriate scale, then glue a small parts from different scale models from standard model kits like tanks, planes and others.

Final step is to add personal touches, paint and weather it. Weathering is an important part because it gives a viewer a “real object” feel. For example Millennium Falcon from Star Wars have a lot of parts from Panzer III tank, BMW R75 bike, 57′ Chevy Bel Air, Ferrari 312B and so on. In case of the teleportation controller it was a standard button housing with M60 A3 & M9 Bulldozer Kit tank and T80 tank, finished in matte black paint with details highlighted by dry-brush technique.

NB: How did you make the spaceship?

It was a matte painting, made by a talented polish concept artist Maciej Rebisz. I saw his work a few months ago and immediately wanted to hire him to all upcoming projects:) When I checked his portfolio it felt like he draw things like straight from my brain. Our first cooperation was “TEMPUS” and I’m more than happy with the final result.

NB: Was the music created specifically for this project?

BH: Music was composed from scratch by Topcut – polish composer and DJ based in Berlin. For me music and sound design was always essential in making videos. We all know specific sounds from movie making history like breath of Darth Vader or “Jaws” music theme.

It was my first opportunity to work on my personal project with composer without continuous changes from client, which is everyday nightmare in normal work. Of course I could use a readymade music and sounds from stock but building it from scratch brought a lot more capabilities. Cooperation with Topcut brought a new quality to this project.

NB: Bartek, thank you for your time. It’s so fantastic to see nice results of using the DitoGear™ equipment. We wish you good luck with your future projects!

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